“We were all over the place.”
This was how Portland Timbers’ captain Will Johnson, rain drenched and uneasy in sportscaster headphones, summed up his team’s performance after last Saturday’s season opening against the Philadelphia Union.
He was right, the Timbers were all over the place, and never in control of the game’s pace, which is a prerequisite for a successful possession-based team. They were disjointed in attack, haphazard in midfield and, because of Philly’s constant counter attacks, topsy-turvy in the back. It was not a vintage display.
Two things struck me as I watched Johnson dissect his team’s poor performance. The first was that it’s not natural for a soccer player to wear giant headphones and a TV mic. The guys are too small and the equipment overwhelms them. They either need something more lithe and elegant (dare I say European? No, I daren’t), or they need to put on football shoulder pads. American football shoulder pads. I’m still not used to the sight of these out-of-breath-I’m-just-gonna-hit-a-few-clichés-cause-I’m-exhausted interviews; it’s one of those tics that seems to come from the MLS second guessing its audience’s preferences. We love it in our football (except… do we?) so of course we’d love it in soccer. I think it’s inane, particularly the halftime check-ins with the coaches.
The second thing that struck me was how much expectation has changed around this team. For a handful of years, everyone has known that Portland has a great fanbase, but the team was bad. Outside the region, the support was novel. It was cute and to people unfamiliar with the club and its history, it looked like a fad. A team gets sustained attention through results, and results alone, otherwise they’re a human interest story (for the moment, let’s ignore the possibility that all sport is a human interest story). The Timbers won respect last season and the situation they find themselves is new.
You see, Johnson’s deflated “we were really bad” interview came moments after the most thrilling event in soccer – a goal scored with (nearly) the game’s last touch. The Timbers made something out of nothing at the very, very, last minute. For the fans, it was like being served a big slice of cake just as we were getting up from a dinner of soggy cabbage. And then there was honest Will Johnson, with his alien TV gear, and morose outlook – the endorphins had passed him by! He was really serious!
On the one hand, this is great; he’s a competitor, and hates not winning. Successful teams are built upon this kind of competitive intransigence. On the other hand, it shows the amount of pressure the team is already feeling.
Last season’s psychological territory was a luxury for the players and Coach Caleb Porter. Expectations were low and every incremental improvement was cheered on. The fact that in total the improvement was revolutionary means the old standards on which they were judged are irrelevant now and pretty much forgotten. The bar is now winning the Western Conference.
Other teams see them differently now. Last season, as the Timbers reinvented themselves underneath Porter, opposing teams had to figure them out on the go. This season, they know the system and style they’re playing against and can more readily prepare. They also go in knowing they’re up against one of the best sides in the league: this can work both for and against Portland. I expect to see more deep lying defenses set to deny Darlington Nagbe, Max Urruti, and Diego Valeri space in the final third.
Simply put, the Timbers will have to continue to improve. They’ll need to get better in order to match, much less better, last season’s achievements. There is, of course, no reason why they can’t. The team has held on to its core group of important players and added quality throughout the pitch. The offseason stability should serve them well – the players understand each other, and the new faces add depth and variety. There’s every reason (aside from opening day…) to be optimistic.
What the Philadelphia game made clear, however, was that the Timbers are not automatically going to be as fluent or cohesive as they were in last year’s periods of good form. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be a barnstorming season beginning; the team was having trouble scoring from open play in the preseason, and that was evident in the lack of chances created on Saturday. There were flashes of brilliance, particularly in the interchanges between Valeri and Nagbe, but the moments were fleeting and didn’t result in many clear-cut opportunities. Nagbe was fast on the ball, and worked tirelessly, but the rest of the offense didn’t match his dynamism.
In fact, I’d argue that the Timbers still aren’t a totally settled team; they need to get comfortable with their starting striker, and their starting striker needs to find form. Urruti, a late-season arrival last year, never got a great run of games due to injury, and it looks as though there’s still a ways to go with him. Porter is playing a 4-3-3 with Urruti as the number 9, which requires him to be strong with his back to goal and hold off the defense while his supporting attackers arrive. Then, he needs to be clever and precise with his link-up play. The most famous contemporary players in this position would probably be Bayern Munich’s Mario Mandzukic and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud, guys who have physical presence but can also read the run of play and serve as supporting actors rather than flamboyant stars. Urruti, while tall, seems to be struggling a little with the physical aspect; he was repeatedly pushed off 50/50 balls. His link-up play wasn’t great, but then again neither was the rest of the team’s. He just needs more time.
While fans may be disappointed that the team isn’t firing on all cylinders right off, there’s no reason to lose patience yet. The same goes for the players: it’s much too early to worry. The fact that the reaction to a draw was such concern is a sign of how far the club has come.
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